This is where I write. I mostly try to make people laugh. If you did not laugh, perhaps there is a video of an animal doing something humorous you could view? Try searching YouTube for "puppy" and "groin", I'll bet that does the trick. Just make sure you include the "puppy" part.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Halo... is it me you're looking 4?

One of the hardest things about working in the games industry is keeping your dang mouth shut. We are by definition creative people. In fact, the path that got me into games started with a realization that I didn’t enjoy the job I had at the moment because there was no creative element there (a very long time ago I was a Systems Analyst for the Canadian Department of Justice). The downside to having that creative itch is that you want to share those creations with other people. Oh sure, there are creators out there who say they “do it for themselves”. Personally I don’t buy it, given that those people most often sell their work, in which case they’re also explicitly stating what it’s worth to other people (If I had to point a finger at someone who may actually believe that sentiment it’s George Lucas, because God knows that guy isn’t making movies for anyone I’ve ever met). Truth be told, I want to make really high quality stuff that will be seen by as many people as possible. By the way, I believe the first part of that sentence leads to the second.

When it comes to games, the hard part is the gestation period. In this day and age it takes a while to make a game, especially when you set your bar high. The creative process can make some absolutely delicious sausage, but you really don’t want to eat it before it’s ready. And so we wait. We are creators working in relative obscurity, occasionally getting pieces of the whole to the point where we can say “This… this says something about what we are trying to achieve here”. To you, those are the trailers and screenshots and podcasts; and trust me: we look forward to those moments as much as you do. We look forward to them because those are the times when we get to share our creations with the world, little islands of appreciation in the marathon between ship dates. We create so that you can enjoy, and I hope that everything I do is enjoyed by someone or I wouldn’t make it.

Being able to say that I am working on Halo 4 is fantastic. I came to 343 Industries because Halo CE made me want to make games for a living, and I wanted to create the next installment of this fantastic franchise. We’ve still got a lot of work to do, but for now I’m happy we were able to share our teaser trailer with you. I hope you enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed sharing it.